Shirley Triplett shovels her driveway in Morgantown, W.Va., on Oct. 30. Snow from Superstorm Sandy blanketed much of the Appalachians at the end of October. / Ron Rittenhouse, AP

by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

After 16 consecutive warmer-than-average months, the USA had cooler-than-average temperatures in October, according to the monthly climate report from the National Climatic Data Center.

The average temperature of 53.9 degrees was 0.3 degrees below average.

The weather lowlight of the month was, of course, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast. The hurricane and the superstorm it morphed into killed more than 100 people as storm surge, wind, rain and snow hammered the region.

A report from global reinsurer Aon Benfield on Thursday put the storm's economic cost as high as $30 billion.

According to the climate center report, below-average temperatures stretched from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico during October, with 19 states having monthly temperatures below average. The Southwest and the Northeast were the only two areas of the country with above-average temperatures.

Despite the cool month of October, the USA is still enduring its warmest year on record, so far: "The January-October period was the warmest first 10 months of any year on record for the contiguous U.S.," the climate center report noted. "The national temperature of 58.4 degree was 3.4 degrees above the 20th century average, and 1.1Â°F above the previous record warm January-October of 2000."

The USA will likely set the mark for warmest year on record.

Looking ahead to the winter, the Climate Prediction Center announced that El Nino has faded away. This despite earlier predictions that a weak El Nino would develop this fall and winter.

El Nino, a warming of tropical Pacific Ocean water, affects weather and climate in the USA and around the world, especially in winter.

With no El Nino, the center now expects that the "neutral" phase of what's called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation will develop, which is the middle phase between the warmer El Nino and cooler La Nina.